NO QUESTION of who won the first week of the Welsh Conservative leadership campaign.

Andrew RT Davies, the burly Vale of Glamorgan farmer and South Wales Central AM, must take the first round on points after forcing his rival, Nick Ramsay, into the kind of skidding U-turn he would have frowned on when he was a driving instructor.

The contest has been seen as a fairly simple battle: old-school (Mr Davies) v modern (Mr Ramsay); True Brit v “Welshifier”.

But it appears that Mr Ramsay has worked out that isn’t working. Which can be the only explanation for his sudden conversion to anglicised right-winger. On TV last week, Mr Ramsay desperately sought to downplay his reputation – largely self-created – as being on the Welshifying wing of the party. He represented Monmouth, he pointed out: anglicised and a home of right-wing Conservatism.

Mr Ramsay’s problem is he has always been seen as Nick Bourne’s apprentice. And now, as he speaks to the party, perhaps he is realises large swathes of it don’t like Nick Bourne. They didn’t much like his Welshifying. They only put up with it because it appeared to be successful.

Mr Ramsay would only have had to speak to people at party conferences to find that out.

Mr Davies knows this because for the best part of the past year he’s been slogging his way around constituency parties.

Mr Ramsay tends to confine himself more to Monmouth.

The party’s 6,000 members in Wales have had Nick Bourne and don’t fancy another. Mr Ramsay has two months to become a completely different person.